Loyola Students for Life: 1, Planned Parenthood: 0

After attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C and the National Students for Life Conference, the Loyola Students for Life group returned back to Loyola University, a Catholic institution, only to find that the Women’s Resource Center of the school was putting on a vulgar show entitled The Vagina Monologues. And the proceeds? Well, they were going to Planned Parenthood. Again, this is at a Catholic university, a faith that holds abortion to be a “grave evil.”

The Students for Life group first learned of the event from an announcement at Sunday Loyola SFLnight Mass on campus.

Campus Ministry, including the man announcing at mass, had no idea the proceeds were going to Planned Parenthood. The event itself was well advertised but it wasn’t made clear that the funds were going to Planned Parenthood directly, until the group did their research. The Facebook event for the show stated that all proceeds from the tickets sold would go to Planned Parenthood and that 85% of sales on Vagina-themed merchandise was also being donated to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is the Wal-Mart of abortion vendors, committing over 320,000 abortions a year, which equals over 1 in 3. They have also been referred for over a dozen criminal charges by Congress for the illegal trafficking of body parts of aborted babies.

Loyola Students for Life knows all this and they were outraged – so they decided to act.

The co-president of Loyola Students for Life, Alex Lucas, immediately emailed the President of the University, a Catholic priest, voicing his concerns as to how this event was against Catholic social teachings. He then talked to his faculty moderator and the campus minister, who were both in agreement with Loyola Students for Life that this event is directly opposed to Catholic teaching (good job administrators!).

The Loyola SFL group drafted a letter outlining why Planned Parenthood shouldn’t receive any proceeds and gave it to the campus minister.

The campus minister, with letter in hand, arranged a meeting with the Vice President of Loyola and the head of the Women’s Resource Center, who is pro-choice and had a big say in making sure Planned Parenthood would be getting the proceeds.

Because of Loyola Students for Life’s commitment and understanding of the unethical organization that Planned Parenthood is, they succeeded in getting the Women’s Resource Center to instead donate the money to STAR: Sexual Trauma Awareness Response, a group dedicated to helping victims of sexual abuse.

“I can’t believe I had to go through all of that to prevent my Catholic school from donating to Planned Parenthood. I’m already getting nasty texts and comments. I put on my armor of Christ this morning and charged full speed ahead,” said Alex Lucas, co-president of Loyola Students for Life. “Not only has our new administration pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, but Loyola Students for Life is a testament that we are defeating Planned Parenthood on the cultural front as well. We don’t need Planned Parenthood.”

“Loyola Students for Life is a great example of why education about Planned Parenthood’s mission of abortion-above-all-else is so key to ending their hold on half a billion of taxpayers funding a year and to get to their target audience of young women before they are betrayed by the abortion giant,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “While the school should have also canceled the performance and secured a more appropriate show for a Catholic campus, we do commend them for taking timely steps to make sure Planned Parenthood received no proceeds from the show and certainly congratulate Loyola SFL for taking a strong stance against the nation’s largest abortion vendor.”

This article was originally posted on the Students for Life website on February 2, 2017.